(Live) PAO – Maccabi and Real Madrid – Basconia, Euroleague: Playoff madness continues

Real Madrid’s basketball players celebrated at home against Baskonia with a score of 101:90, thus taking a 2-0 lead in the quarter-final series of the Euroleague.

Baskonia managed to match Real for a good 25 minutes in the “Visink Center”, but without the injured Chima Moneke, they were unable to do more than that.

“Karaljevski Klub” started to make the key difference in the middle of the third part, when, with a lead of 58:54, it made a series of 12:3 and went to a double-digit advantage (70:57).

At that time, it was almost clear that there was no return to Duško Ivanović’s team, in which the Serbian representative Vanja Marinković excelled.

The former captain of Partizan scored 20 points (3/4 for two, 2/3 for three), but he did not manage to help the team from Vitoria to more seriously vaporize the current champion of the Euroleague, who with a furious opening of the last section went to the maximum plus 23 (93:70 ).

The only one more effective than Marinković in this meeting was Facundo Campazzo who had 24 points and seven assists, and Jabusele added 16 points with five rebounds. Lew was also notable with 13 points, while Tavares (nine rebounds), Deck and Poirier (seven rebounds) added ten each.

At Baskonia, Cody Miller-McIntyre scored 13 points, along with eight rebounds and six assists, and Marcus Howard with 12 and Matt Costello with 10 points were also in double figures.

End of the match 95:79

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, on the wings of Antonius Cleveland and Hasiel River, Maccabi continued the series from the end of the third quarter and came to a minus of three points 71:68, but in the moments of crisis, Matias Lessor appeared and stopped the onslaught of the guests.

The French center scored six points and kept PAO in the lead, and when Papapetrou hit a triple for plus 12 (82:70), it was clear that everything was over.

End of 3/4, 71:59

At the beginning of the second half, Panathinaikos continued in the same rhythm as at the end of the third and, thanks to the excellent rolls of Mitoglu and Papapetrou, went to plus 18 (62:44).

Kendrick Nunn joined the wing basketball players of the Greens, while on the other side, Lorenzo Brown kept Maccabi from sinking completely with seven points, and Tamir Blad and Antonius Cleveland joined him at the end.

The team from Tel Aviv was approaching minus 13, but with five tied points, their first rush was stopped by Slukas. However, in the last minute of the quarter, Blatt and Cleveland punished their rivals’ mistakes and reduced the deficit to a bearable 11 points (71:59) before the last quarter.

End of 2/4, 51:39

At the beginning of the second part, Maccabi faced a problem in production, which was caused by the significantly more aggressive defense of Panathinaikos, but the local basketball players were not able to use it in the best way.

They came close to the Greens on several occasions in the first half of the second quarter at minus three, but in those moments they missed open shots or lost balls, which helped the guests to keep the lead on their side with only eight points given in five minutes (36:32). .

However, then Kostas Slukas entered the scene and changed the momentum of the game with three connected three-pointers, and at the moment of scoring the last one, Nibo earned an unsportsmanlike personal foul due to an uncontrolled move and hitting Ioannis Papapetrou under the basket.

The former Partizan basketball player was first accurate from the penalty, and then hit a three-pointer from the corner, and Lesor followed it all up with a basket with a foul for a 14:0 series and a 49:38 lead for the home team.

End of 1/4, 28:20

The initial stage of the second match of the quarter-final series brought a great roll of Jake Cohen, who scored ten points in just over five minutes. He was followed by Lorenzo Braun with six points and the two of them were the main attacking force of Maccabi in the first part.

The “pride of Israel” had a 12:7 advantage after three and a half minutes, but PAO found a rhythm through Kendrick Nunn and Dimos Mitoglu, who scored six points each. At one point, the Greens took the lead with 14:12, but that started a series of 13:2 for the guests and took the lead with 25:16.

The guests used the lapses in concentration of the Panathinaikos basketball players in defense and scored cheap points on several occasions, and PAO came within five (25:20) with a three-pointer from Slukas and points from Wildosa after a counterattack.

However, Hasiel Riveo had the last word in the first part, and with a three-pointer from the corner, Oded Kataš’s team gained eight points – 28:20.

Before the matches:

Basketball players Panathinaikos they gave their fans an unpleasant surprise in the playoff series opener with Maccabias they were defeated in their “OAKA” arena after a thriller ending – 91:87.

Oded Kataš’s team showed that they are playing in great shape, but their big problem in game number two will be the absence of the injured Wade Baldwin.

One of the best defenders in the Euroleague suffered an injury to his back in the previous match, so despite his great desire to help his teammates, he will not be able to do so.

This could be a mitigating circumstance for the Greens, who in the previous days had a lot to do with the referees and some of their decisions at the opening of the series, but Maccabi showed in the first game that it has a wide enough rotation to compensate for this absence.

On the other hand, the match between Real Madrid and Baskonia is perhaps the least attractive of all the quarter-final series, since the “royal club” is a clear favorite against Duško Ivanovic’s weakened squad, which will not even have the team’s best player – Chima Moneke.

We will see if the team from Vitoria can somehow make up for the absence of such an important player, and for a miracle in Madrid, they will definitely need an inspired game from Marcus Howard and Cody Miller-McIntyre, who are expected to start the team.

The first match brought a routine victory for the defending champions, and we will see if the Basques can make the second match more interesting and offer more serious resistance to Madrid.

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